


The Hero and the Rogue

by Major



Category: The Mummy Series
Genre: F/M, Humor, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21825913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Major/pseuds/Major
Summary: Evy and Rick have to climb out of a bad situation. Literally.
Relationships: Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Comments: 16
Kudos: 55
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	The Hero and the Rogue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grlgoddess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grlgoddess/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide!

"You know, in the grand scheme of things, there are way worse ways to die than this."

Rick stared up at the star-speckled night sky and figured it was a better last sight than a lot of guys got. The beauty of nature and all that crap was only slightly marred by the fact that he was admiring it from where he was reclined, legs stretched out, in the deep hole in the ground where he and Evy had been thrown when a rival excavation team had decided it was best to chuck them into the next life by starving them out or letting them drown when the storm finally hit. And people called him a rogue. The most he ever did to warn rivals off of their side of a site was shoot at the ground and pretend it was a warning shot when he missed their feet.

Lightning flashed in the sky. Thunder and rain would come next, and relaxing in the hole would become more challenging when it started to fill up with water. On the other hand, he was filthy from lugging Evy's equipment around all day and would enjoy the shower.

"Think of all the ways we've seen people clock out. Mummy rotted, bugs under the skin. Forget about the weird stuff. People die in worse normal ways too. Drowning in a hole is good fun compared to other ways we could get it. Knew a guy that got eaten by a hippo, regurgitated, then eaten again by another hippo. Wasn't spit out that time."

Another flash of lightning showed how much dirtier Evy now was than him from all the useless scrambling up the muddy walls that were still damp from the earlier drizzle that would be nothing next to the storm on its way. She turned to him exasperated.

"Could we, by any chance, not die at all? Not in that baffling"—she pointed at him—"and _fictional_ way or here in this hole?"

Okay, she had him. The hippo guy's death was told to him by a friend of a friend of an acquaintance of an enemy and was probably taller than he was in the tale department.

Still, he'd had a big lunch and wasn't in the mood to wear himself out. Honestly, he was enjoying the reprieve the hole was giving him from all the earlier digging. "I don't know, Evy. Not dying at all seems to be the motivation of most of the worst guys we run into. I say we let nature take its course and enjoy the stress free God-given gift of crapping out without digging our heels in too much on the whole death thing."

"Today, Rick! Can we not... 'crap out'," she struggled over the words, "today! Or are you too unsteady in your heels to dig them in?"

Big talk for somebody covered in dirt with no progress to show for it, but she had her hands on her hips and that challenging look that meant she'd escalate to huffing soon if he didn't move his ass. So impatient. He hauled himself to his feet and slapped the dirt off the back of his pants.

"Fine. If you insist." He grabbed her by the waist, pleased with the squeal it evoked, and picked her up high enough to get her hands on the edge of their would-be grave. "But if we run into a hippo up there, you're going to be begging for the hole."

It was hard for her to get a decent hold, but he pushed her up until she could wiggle herself enough to get out. She looked down at him victoriously when she got to her feet back on ground level.

"I'll find something to get you out!"

"Take your time," he said and considered returning to his reclined state until she returned to rescue him from his enjoyable break. He owed their attempted killers a drink.

Evy was always too quick for her own good or his, though, and popped back into view with a long coiled rope before he'd moved out of his lean.

"I tied it to a tree!" She smiled, triumphant, and it was fondness and the desire to be back on solid ground with that smile more than any resentment for the pleasant hole that made Rick grab the end she tossed to him and climb out.

"Thanks for the rescue," he said, putting a hand to the small of her back and drawing her up close to him. "But I thought I was the hero."

She tilted her head back and said with perfect sincerity, "Yes. You are mine, and I am yours. Agreed?"

Hell, she didn't need to toss him a rope to save him. She'd done it a dozen times before, and it had counted most when his life wasn't on the line. A bastard like him being loved by a woman like her was heroic enough. He'd dig and haul stuff, shoot at greedy criminals' feet and be her mule as much as she wanted as long as she kept saving him in that way until they got old and went somewhere warm when it really was time for them, far in the future, to crawl into bed and crap out together. He was just a rogue that got tamed by a good woman. Evy was the hero.

"Don't stop," she complained in a whisper with a wisp of a smile teasing her lips. He'd leaned in to kiss her and got distracted as he sometimes did, by the fact that he could do that. Any time he wanted. Always.

"Wasn't gonna."

They kissed there on the abandoned dig site and forgot all about oncoming storms and people that got eaten by hippos (twice) until thunder clapped in the distance and preceded the clip-clop of camel hooves in the distance that signaled the return of their dig neighbors. They'd gone off drinking somewhere and were firing their guns into the air and whooping in their approach.

Rick grabbed her hand and tugged her back towards their things where the drunks had blessedly left their own camels tied up while they were gone. "Time to go."

"I thought you liked it in the hole," Evy teased as he hurried her along.

"Oh, I do. The hole is great. A hole is an underrated place to spend your time." Now that their friends had found ammunition, it was a less than ideal place to linger, however. "Getting shot in a hole means even idiots with aim as bad as theirs are going to nail us."

Evy sobered and matched his pace. "Right."

The great thing about idiots, though, was that they had no foresight. He and Evy made quick work of loading the camels with the only things worth taking from the dig and rode off together with the loot. She shot him a wide smile over her shoulder with lightning flashing behind her as her camel left his in the dust, and he raced after her with a grin, thinking Evy was the hero and the rogue.


End file.
